My name is Michael, and I’m a chocoholic.
One thing that’s really bad slash good about the holidays is the preponderance of indulgent food.
Correlatively, one thing that’s really bad slash good about the post-holidays is the preponderance of people trying to get rid of indulgent food from their homes.
Any resolution-motivated commitment to “eat healthy” can really be complicated by the ready availability of these indulgences. Willpower? What willpower?
Case in point, some of the tantalizing goodies brought into my workplace just in the last week have included dark and white chocolate-drizzled gourmet popcorn, a tin of delicious chocolate-covered peppermint cookies, a chocolate ganache torte, a box of assorted chocolates, some cappuccino-flavored meringues, and a container of chocolate-covered toffees.
Not that I am complaining…it is very hard to complain when stuffing something delicious and chocolate down my gullet…but it will be so much easier trying to get back on track with fitting into my pants again once this spirit of generosity finally dies down.
My office has goodies like that every day of the week, all day long. It’s VERY hard to stay on track with it sitting so close to me.
I’m very fortunate that sweets have never been much of a trigger for me - I can take them or leave them. There have been pounds of chocolate and chocolate-like goodies around here, too, but - for the most part - I’ve left them alone. Try chewing peppermint gum…I hear that it can cut the desire for sweets.
Oh, we have the every day goodies in our office too. For years, a wonderful woman in our building has kept a steady supply of Pepperidge Farm cookies (mostly Milano and Brussels cookies) and Girl Scout cookies (esp. Thin Mints) all year round. About the latter…she stocks up on hundreds of boxes of those so that there is really no “off season” for the Girl Scout cookies.
However, in a way, I have sort of built up a resistance to those. It’s the new taste sensations that really tempt me.
I think I’ll experiment with the peppermint gum thing, Denise. Thanks. I seem to remember reading somewhere too that the act of chewing gum raises your metabolism slightly.
I usually try to keep myself full with water, but that doesn’t really give me the chewing satisfaction. And often, I’m not hungry; my mouth is just bored, so I keep nervous eating. A bad habit to get into.